French actor Gerard Depardieu found guilty of sexual assault on film set

A Paris court on Tuesday found actor Gerard Depardieu guilty of having sexually assaulted two women on a 2021 film set, sentencing him to an 18-month suspended prison sentence.

The actor, 76, was convicted of having groped a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant during the filming of Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters).

The case is widely seen as a key post-#MeToo test of how French society and its film industry address allegations of sexual misconduct involving prominent figures.

Depardieu, who has denied the accusations, did not attend Tuesday’s hearing.

Depardieu’s long and storied career — he told the court that he’s made more than 250 films — has turned him into a French movie giant.

He was Oscar-nominated in 1991 for his performance as the swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac.

During the four-day trial in March, Depardieu rejected the accusations, saying he’s “not like that”.

He acknowledged that he had used vulgar and sexualised language on the film set and that he grabbed the set dresser’s hips during an argument, but denied that his behaviour was sexual.

The set dresser described the alleged assault, saying the actor pincered her between his legs as she squeezed past him in a narrow corridor.

She said he grabbed her hips, then started “palpating” her behind and “in front, around”.

She ran her hands near her buttocks, hips and pubic area to show what she allegedly experienced. She said he then grabbed her chest.

The woman also testified that Depardieu used an obscene expression to ask her to touch his penis and suggested he wanted to rape her.

She told the court that the actor’s calm and co-operative attitude during the trial bore no resemblance to his behaviour at work.

The other plaintiff, an assistant, said that Depardieu groped her buttocks and her breasts during three separate incidents on the film set.

The Associated Press does not identify by name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to be named.

Neither woman has done so in this case.

Paris’s public prosecutor had requested that Depardieu be found guilty and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 20,000 euros (£16,800).

The prosecutor denounced the actor’s “total denial and failure to question himself”.

Some figures in the French cinema world have expressed their support for Depardieu.

Actors Vincent Perez and Fanny Ardant were among those who took seats on his side of the courtroom.

Depardieu has been accused publicly or in formal complaints of misconduct by more than 20 women, but so far, only the sexual assault case has proceeded to court.

Some other cases were dropped because of a lack of evidence or the statute of limitations.

The actor may have to face other legal proceedings soon.

In 2018, actor Charlotte Arnould accused him of raping her at his home.

That case is still active, and in August 2024, prosecutors requested that it go to trial.